Saturday Art School: Color and Paint

Yesterday in class our group allowed the students to explore with paint. We started them off with a sketchbook prompt leading them to think about and draw a place of their choice. While the students arrived and were sketching we had music playing.  We experienced a small “hiccup” with that as a song triggered a sad memory for one little girl and made her cry. When we changed the song she was ok. At the beginning of the lesson, Cassidy used her Power Point to briefly explain that the swatches they would create today would be cut up in next class and used to create an imaginary landscape. The class split up then to the discovery stations at the back of the room. We had three stations set up with tempera paints, materials and tools to manipulate swatches of color the students painted. When asked, many of them already recognized basic color mixing formulas but not very many had ever had the opportunity to experiment with paint on the scale that we allowed them during our class. The kids loved the freedom we allowed them to have. One child even exclaimed her mother NEVER let he paint “like this!”

 

Altered with plastic wrap.

Altered with salt.

Altered with alcohol.

 

In our text Children and Their Art, Hurwitz and Day describe three general styles of instruction: directive, Socratic/questioning, and discovery (p.284). The lesson Cassidy has planned for us during this segment of SAS I feel weighs in strongly on the discovery method. She set the stage for an open-ended lesson requiring the students to speculate and problem-solve…and they loved it.  Our group (5^th and 6^th grade) stayed on-task. They were intrigued by the variables we presented and maintained active participation until class was over.  Each student completed 4 or more 9x12 fully painted pages.

There were several instances in class that recalled reading from our text by Smith. The students were very socially conscious, they did well working in a group where they could share experiences. I tried to stay conscious of my responses to the student’s work, responding in ways that affirmed they had done it correctly and why it worked. That seemed to really generate positive reactions and encouraged them to experiment more.

The Smith text also describes understanding three dimensional spaces as a challenge for this age group. I think the second part of Cassidy’s lesson, assembling an imaginary landscape, will be a good opportunity to teach them about how to manage depth and space in a composition.  One thing we did not do (that I recall) is share an example of the finished product. I think the students understood we will be cutting up their “masterpieces” from yesterday’s class, but I’m not sure they visualized the end product. I know Cassidy had a completed one in her book so we will have one to share next class, but maybe it would be wise to share a completed “end product” during first class in the future.